With 189 member countries, staff from more 170 countries, and offices in over 130 locations, the World Bank Group is a unique global partnership: five institutions working for sustainable solutions that reduce poverty and build shared prosperity in developing countries.

Experts And Leaders

The World Bank Group works in every major area of development. We provide a wide array of financial products and technical assistance, and we help countries share and apply innovative knowledge and solutions to the challenges they face.

Country Groups

Global data and statistics, research and publications, and topics in poverty and development

We face big challenges to help the world’s poorest people and ensure that everyone sees benefits from economic growth. Data and research help us understand these challenges and set priorities, share knowledge of what works, and measure progress.

Washington, DC, October 2, 2012―As part of its long-term solution to recurring drought, and chronic food and power shortages in Africa’s Sahel region, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved US$203 million for the “Niger Basin Water Resources Development and Sustainable Ecosystems Management Program (APL 2A),” which will contribute to the funding of the Kandadji Program to increase food production, generate more electricity, boost jobs, and create economic opportunities for families and communities in the countries of the Niger Basin.

The project will also support the Niger Basin Authority to further strengthen regional cooperation among its nine riparian countries. The Kandadji Program is an example of the World Bank’s push to create ‘growth poles’ in Africa that generate growth across agriculture, infrastructure and other key sectors. This latest initiative includes the Kandadji dam, a power plant, transmission line, environmental and social measures, irrigation for farms, and an economic development plan for local communities.

“Kandadji is a transformational development project that will deliver significantly more opportunity to communities, more food, water, and electricity, and less poverty in the poorest region of Africa,” said Makhtar Diop, World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region. “As African countries look to sustain and boost their high growth rates while improving their development prospects, projects like Kandadji can be game-changers for a continent looking for significantly more irrigation and electricity, as well as better health, education, and economic opportunities for its growing population of young people.

According to Diop, who believes that greater agricultural productivity and electricity expansion are vital to Africa’s development future, more than 47 per cent of Niger’s 16 million people are under the age of 15.

Recurring droughts and chronic food and power shortages routinely afflict the region, and the Sahel is currently suffering from drought. Only 12 percent of Niger’s land is fertile enough to grow food crops. The Kandadji program takes an integrated approach to helping communities in the Basin area build up their long-term development resilience to drought, hunger, and other threats, by providing them with secure water storage, improved irrigation, and significantly increased renewable hydropower energy by up to 130 megawatts.

“The Kandadji Program will make a significant contribution by helping to meet the development needs of the people of Niger and its other neighbors in The Sahel,” said Jamal Saghir, the World Bank’s Director for Sustainable Development in Africa. “By supporting transformational projects like Kandadji with cross-border benefits, we can all mobilize behind energy solutions to help create a more promising development future for West Africa.”

Increasing food production in some of the driest parts of the world and helping farmers to improve their economic livelihoods is vital for reducing poverty in the region. The Kandadji dam will increase the Niger Valley’s irrigated cropland from 10,000 to 55,000 hectares, a significant contribution to improve food security and resilience to droughts that will be exacerbated with climate change.

“The Kandadji Program marks an opportunity to show that good development can happen with well-designed programs that jumpstart growth,” said Amal Talbi-Jordan, Senior Water Resources Management Specialist in the Bank’s Africa Region and project Task Team Leader. “We look forward to effective project implementation so that the project’s benefits help to create better development prospects for communities, both in Niger and in the wider Niger Basin countries.”

The Kandadji Program will be part of the West Africa Power Pool and is designed to generate substantial development benefits for the region. The Kandadji Program design integrates regional, national and local cooperation, and promotes greater synergy between the different priorities of agriculture, environment, energy and water sectors. It is an illustration of good development. Seven of the nine Niger basin riparian countries are among the 20 poorest in the world and good development needs to take place. The World Bank’s zero-interest financing will come from its International Development Association,* the Bank’s fund for the world’s poorest countries.

Today’s approval of the Kandadji Program responds to the priorities set by The African Caucus and the Kinshasa II Declaration issued on August 2, 2012 which called for boosting African agricultural productivity through the development of integrated regional projects and strengthen energy power pools for regional impact. The project will be implemented using strong international environmental and social safeguards.

follow us

newsletter

You have clicked on a link to a page that is not part of the beta version of the new worldbank.org. Before you leave, we’d love to get your feedback on your experience while you were here. Will you take two minutes to complete a brief survey that will help us to improve our website?

Feedback Survey

Thank you for agreeing to provide feedback on the new version of worldbank.org; your response will help us to improve our website.

What was the purpose of your visit to worldbank.org today?

Did the layout and navigation of the new site help you locate what you were looking for?
Yes
No

Do you have any other feedback on the new version of our website? (Optional)

If you are willing to be contacted in the future to help us improve our website, please leave your email address below.

Which of the following best describes your career field or organization?
Student
Academic/Professor
Government Employee
Media Organization
Multilateral Organization
NGO or Nonprofit
Private Sector Firm
World Bank Group
Other

How often do you visit the World Bank website?
This is my first time
Daily
About once a week
About once a month
Every six months or less often

Thank you for participating in this survey! Your feedback is very helpful to us as we work to improve the site functionality on worldbank.org.